Vladimir Putin won't be presiding over Russia in the near future due to his health issues, an insider has reportedly claimed. The reports throw into doubt his future as leader and whether he will be able to continue, as pressure mounts over his decision to invade Ukraine.
The president, who turns 70 on Friday (October 7), is said to have been visited around three dozen times by medical specialists with cancer expertise, according to the Proyekt opposition website. In April it claimed that he was bathing in the blood of young reindeer antlers as treatment. Known as "antler broth", many claim it improves men's health and prevents ageing.
Putin has also been seen walking with a limp on several occasions, including on a trip to Iran in July. Although the president is 70, state statistics show average male life expectancy in Russia is 66. However, he will have access to leading global healthcare specialists, unlike most citizens in his country.
According to insiders, the Russian leader has become increasingly "isolated and irrational", and his health problems are said to be affecting his decision-making. Yet he continues to enjoy widespread support among his people. But behind closed doors, some members of the political elite are accepting that Putin’s regime could be nearing its final stretch.
A source close to the Kremlin told Meduza, another opposition website: “There’s an understanding, or a wish, that he won’t be governing the state maybe in the foreseeable future.” Only last week there were reports Putin's health was “dramatically deteriorating”.
According to an article in The Mirror, Valery Solovey, a former professor at Moscow's prestigious Institute of International Relations, has long claimed the Kremlin leader has serious underlying illnesses. Now he alleges that the Russian President's secret medical conditions have affected his judgment on how he conducts the war in Ukraine.
Putin recently annexed parts of four regions of Ukraine in defiance of world opinion and following sham referendums. It was a move viewed by the West as a way of escalating the war and was expected to trigger further sanctions on Russia.
Solovey, 62, in an interview with exiled Zhivoi Gvozd radio — formerly the highly respected Echo Moscow, but closed by pro-Kremlin Gazprom Media early in the war — said Putin’s burst of recent activity as president did not mean he was healthy. “It is a very strange idea that a gravely ill person cannot work and travel,” he said.
“Specially in such comfort, accompanied by such a number of doctors, and being serviced [according to] top standards of… world medicine. Everything is provided for him in that sense.”
He claimed: “As for his health, it is deteriorating, yes, dramatically. Dramatically.”
Solovey, who claimed to have sources within Putin's circle, said: “All the decisions made by him… on February 24 [start Russian invasion of Ukraine] and September 21 [start of mobilisation] are a direct consequence of his physiological status."
He suggested that but for the supposed illnesses, Putin may not have gone to war in Ukraine.
"Modern therapy, targeted therapy for oncological diseases, is of such quality that you will be working until literally the last few hours," he said.
Solovey, like Telegram channel General SVR, has claimed previously Putin is suffering from serious illnesses including cancer, Parkinson’s disease and a schizoaffective disorder. There have been claims in the West about his health from ex-MI6 head Sir Richard Dearlove, who said the Russian leader faced being sent to a sanatorium, and would be gone by 2023, due to medical issues.
For more stories from where you live, visit InYourArea.
Find recommendations for eating out, attractions and events near you here on our sister website 2Chill
Find recommendations for dog owners and more doggy stories on our sister site Teamdogs
